Free
by sarahlovestwilightyesshedoes
Summary: This is how I imagine Andromeda's engagement announcement went. One-shot. Rated T for very mild language and a little violence.


**My first time writing a one-shot. This was done in under an hour because I was bored, so it's probably not much.**

**Hope you enjoy!  
**

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Andromeda Black made her way down the stairs slowly, dreading the moment to come. The last moment she would have with her family. The last time she would see her parents, the last time she would see her sisters… Tears burned her brown eyes, but she blinked them back. She wasn't going to cry. It wasn't that she considered crying weakness – she loved Ted, and she was going to marry him, no matter what her family had to say about it. Besides, she was pregnant with his child, anyhow…

As she walked with slow yet determined steps to the parlor, where her parents and sisters were sitting and laughing, she touched her stomach, where a slight bump had appeared. She was three months along, and she knew was going to start showing even more soon. If her parents found out that she was pregnant with a Mudblood's child… Andromeda shuddered to think of how that would go down.

Before she pushed the door open, she took a deep breath, hoisted her suitcase full of personal belongings a little higher. She walked in and stood near the door for a moment.

"Andromeda, I was wondering when–" Her mother, Druella, stopped short when she caught sight of her daughter's suitcase and her nervous yet determined expression. "Why are you packed?" she asked her daughter in a suspicious tone, her dark eyebrows furrowing.

"Are you going to stay with that Lestrange boy? Bellatrix's fiancée's brother?" her father, Cygnus, asked hopefully, running a hand through his golden blonde hair. He had been trying to set Andromeda and Rabastan up for as long as the brown-haired girl could remember. He had never been successful, obviously.

"No, Father," Andromeda replied, speaking for the first time. "I need to tell you something. All of you." Her eyes found her sisters', and their expressions were drastically different. Narcissa looked confused and uncomfortable, but Bellatrix looked angry, her dark brown nearly black eyes knowing. She had caught Ted and Andromeda kissing one time during their time at Hogwarts, and Bellatrix's glare that evening could have melted steel. Andromeda made a deal with her sister – if Bellatrix kept her mouth shut about the night's events, she wouldn't tell their parents that their oldest daughter had already taken the Dark Mark. Bellatrix, not ready to divulge this information, was forced to cooperate.

Now, however, the ebony-haired twenty-one-year-old looked just about ready to hex her sister right across London and back. Andromeda could have sworn that Bellatrix subtly reached into her pocket, clutching the handle of her wand.

"Well, come on now, out with it," Druella insisted, still eyeing her daughter's packed bag.

Andromeda took a deep breath and took the plunge. "I'm getting married, Mother."

"Ah, so, when you become Miss Lestrange?" Cygnus asked.

"Never," Andromeda replied. "I'm not getting married to that arrogant little toerag."

"_Andromeda_!" came her mother's appalled response. Her daughter ignored her.

"I'm marrying someone by the name of Ted Tonks," she said, closing her eyes momentarily and waiting for her sister's explosion. It didn't come. _Yet_, she added in her mind.

"Tonks?" her father finally muttered. "Never heard of him."

"You wouldn't have," Andromeda said quickly. "He's not exactly… well…"

"He's a _Mudblood_," Bellatrix spat suddenly.

"What? Bella, you're–"

"Don't even _try _to lie, Andromeda. I know you've been planning to elope with that worthless piece of _scum _ever since I saw you _kissing_"–the word was uttered with disgust–"near the Hufflepuff common room that night."

"I wasn't thinking of marriage at sixteen, Bellatrix!" Andromeda shouted, her temper rising. "I wouldn't even be considering it now if it weren't for the fact that I'm carrying his child!"

Uh-oh. She hadn't meant to say that. All eyes in the room turned to her, glaring. The gentlest of the looks came from Narcissa, yet she was still glaring.

Cygnus was the most upset. His crystal blue eyes were flaring with anger. "Get out," he whispered. "_GET OUT_!" he bellowed, shooting up out of his seat. Andromeda stumbled back a few steps. "GET OUT AND NEVER COME BACK, YOU WHORE!" he roared, slapping his second-eldest daughter across the face.

She refused to cry, even though her cheek now stung horribly and she could feel it turning an angry red. She wasn't going to cry for them. "Fine," she murmured shakily. "_Fine_. I'll go and I won't come back." She turned and walked to the door, and she could still hear her father's shaky, uneven, furious breathing. "My heart goes out to you. Take care."

And with that, she left the room. Andromeda felt a certain weight lift, like she was finally free to run her own life. She walked out the front door, and Disapparated. Ted met her at the front door to his home, and he embraced her, kissing the top of her head.

Andromeda was finally home.


End file.
